This invention relates to an electronic photo flash to be used as an artificial light source in photography.
Portable electronic photo flashes are generally fitted in the shoe of a camera by means of a foot. Consequently, they cannot be used in cameras without a shoe. Recently, there is an increasing number of cameras having a special flash socket and not having a shoe. The present invention is concerned with an electronic photo flash to be used in such special cameras, and particularly those cameras designed to use a flash in which eight lamps are arranged longitudinally in two rows in an elongated case and terminal boards to be plugged into the flash socket are mounted at both ends of the case. Upon plugging one terminal board into the flash socket and taking a photograph, the upper four lamps emit light successively, and when turning the case upside down and plugging the other terminal board into the flash socket and taking another photograph, the remaining four lamps emit light successively in the same manner as above (this type of flash has the trade name "Flip Flash," and the "flash" referred to herein means a flash having the aformentioned terminal board). Therefore, the electronic photo flash of the present invention must have a terminal board of the same shape as the flash. Since the foregoing flash is light, it can mechanically be fixed to camera by only plugging a terminal board into the flash socket. On the other hand, an electronic photo flash is heavy and so plugging a terminal board into the flash socket alone will make it unstable. For this reason, an electronic photo flash must be provided with another fixture means for fixation to the camera.
In using an electronic photo flash, therefore, it is necessary that it should be attached to the camera by suitable fixture means and at the same time the terminal board should be pluggd into the flash socket. In this case, an incomplete plugging of the terminal board into the flash socket sometimes occurs because, unlike the case of the flash, the plug-in of the terminal board will not adequately support the electronic photo flash. In an electronic photo flash, a terminal mounted on a terminal board receives an electric signal from the camera and emits light. Therefore, if the terminal board is not plugged positively into the camera's flash socket, no flash light is emitted even when releasing the shutter of the camera and consequently, the photography fails.